In a March 17th NTIA roundtable meeting various stakeholder groups, including the American Telemedicine Association, The American Association for Community Colleges (AACC), OneEconomy Corportation (and what is that you ask? I too wondered - see below) and the American Library Association (ALA), discussed how their organizations are or could be providing innovating programs.
ALA Executive Director, Emily Shekatoff, argued for a greater investment to be made in public libraries, as they are "the premier public computer centers in America's communities. Libraries are the sole source of free access in 73% of America." Yet over 60% suffer from slow connections that impair their patron's ability to access information. When asked about definition of innovation Shekatoff follows with the amount of bandwidth that it takes for libraries and schools to provide all of the innovative resources they do to the public to everyone,"no matter where you live or how wealthy you are." Nice finish I think!
So score 1 for Shekatoff as she makes the good point that people are turning to libraries more and more during the economic troubled times and in many small communities the library is where people go for internet access. And +1 for finishing with flair!
While the Hermes from the AACC argues that they are even more crucial than libraries because they provide a link "back to into the educational fold for people during economic downturns." An by educating people here in their communities they are providing better skilled workers to come out and be productive members of the community.
OK sounds impressive AACC (score +1 for impressive argument), but definitely has more limitations on it than the general population that would be impacted with libraries. So that's going to cost you .5 points Mr. Hermes.
Next up, Ramsey from OneEconomy Corp. He slams the libraries and schools, in that they are inaccessible for many people. For example, people can't get there during their hours because they are working or do not have transportation to get there. He says the only way that American can make sure that everyone has access to broadband is to bring it to their homes. He even goes on to bring poor Dorothy into it with "there's no place like home!"
Well, well, well Ramsey comes out swinging with the equality card for lower-income groups and kids. In that people that only have access at libraries are "second-class citizens." Whew! I would have loved to see Shekatoff's expression on that! But here is the fatal flaw - he goes on to comment that once people have access and are aware of the advantages that broadband can bring to them they will find it affordable. What? Really now-is the man behind the curtain going to make that appear as well? And have you asked these people would they even use and access broadband if brought to their doorstep? Because as we have seen in previous readings this is debatable!
So Ramsey gets the point (+1) for tugging at the heart strings, but loses (-1) for defiling the Wizard of Oz and ignoring the usage issue.
Finally, Linkous, CEO of American Telemedicine Association. He begins with first trying to define his own organization's interests, in which he takes the broad approach in that it can cover expanding broadband services not just to health care facilities, but to homes of undeserved populations as well.
Linkous goes for the jugular with the "oh yeah well we can do both argument" and argues for diversity in access points. He warns against projects overlapping and duplicating each other which would be a waste of money.
Linkous I am sure scores here (+1) with the scare factor - "oh no, someone is going to bust us for wasting the stimulus money" fear that I am sure is in the back of NTIA's mind. Yet when asked to specifically describe some example of these innovative projects he skirts the issue with Stating there will be applications we haven't even thought of yet.
So who wins? Who scores the big bucks? Your guess is as good as mine! It might be helpful if some definitions, standards or guidelines were present, but we all know that is not going to happen.
Right now it is just a backyard brawl to see who is going to get the biggest piece of the pie!
Info:
One Economy Corporation-this is taken from their web site: Is a global nonprofit organization that uses innovative approaches to deliver the power of technology and information to low-income people, giving them valuable tools for building better lives.We help bring broadband into the homes of low-income people." AH HA - here we go! So here we see their focus is on the home so of course they are down playing the libraries' and schools' importance. Also note the use of "innovative" in their mission statement - one wonders if that was in there a couple of moths ago...
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